Wichita eagle., 1887-12-27
ghe aaieta Daily eagle Tuesday aorno aeeember

Eead-mercItui GCd. 1t was a cOiuH! L
was buried alive!
For a single instant I lost consciousness.
During the interval of a single heart beat
nv faculties were benumbed as by blow
at the base of the brain. The blood in
my veins receded from the surface Of my
body, and | was cold-froZen by the in
tensity Of my terror. A clammy sweat
began to ooze from my pores, and the
blood that had collected about my heart
rushed. a thousand tiny torrents, through
arteries and veins to my brain-I was
burning with the fever Of fright and
disease.
was mad with despair. ] threw my
self to the right and to the left-howling
shrieking, cuTsing, frothing at the mouth
Upward flung my cienched hands. and
a dull crash followed their contact with
the glass above my face This circum.
stance diverted my thoughts into another
channel. If ! was buried, ] argued, my
coffin was incloSed in q strong wooden
box, and over that was piled at least six
feet Of earth.
If ! was buried, On, there was still p
hope, and ! smiled as | tried 10 picture a
condition in which a living, breathing,
reasoning creature ceases to hope.
thought Of the doomed wretch ascending
the scaffold, and hoping against hope for
the pardon that can never reach him. /
thought Of the soldier sentenced to death
by a pitiless court martial, standing
against a white wall, his eyes bandaged,
his grave yaUning at his feet, awaiting
and fearing the fatal word of command,
Yet hoping that the unforeseen was about
10 occur in his behalf thought of the
castaway al sea. clinging to a wave beaten
spar: of the miner imprisoned il the
bowels of the earth; Of the thirst mad
dened waHderer il the desert-all. ell
hoping. No, there are no circumstances
so terrible, no situation so hopeless, that
man may not endure, struggle and hope
And my hope? What was it? That my
coffin had been placed IN a receiving
vault This hope filed my soul as the
dawnlight fills the shadowed aisles OF a
great cathedral. and | grew strong be-
meath its vivifying influence.
As | reganed yny wandering faculties
something fell dripping on my face-somn-
thing warm and nOisOme and slippery
wet-somethinG that fell like the first
drops OF summer rain upon my closed
eyeiids, and trickled down the burrows of
nay cheeks to nay lips-something that
tasted salt
It was blood! Ny hands and wrists
were gashed by the glass through which |
had thrust them. With that taste of my
own blood my hope fied-fed affrighted,
and in its place stalked the grewsome
realization that was buried alive-buried
deep-eutombed. lost. abandoned. Drip
-drip-drip, abandoned by the whole
world-abandoned by those Iloved-aban-
doned by my wife Abandoned! Never
before had i comprehended the utter lone
illness which that word conveys. For
saken,
Despair came to my relief at last. My
hands were again clasped across my
breast. the thumb Of my left hand caresS
ing the button that had excited my curl
osity a few moments before | lny motion
leNs-thinlling. And what queer, absurd,
grotcsque fancies thrilled through my
mind-ghostly tatterdemalions of thought
spectral offspring Of Terror and Woe. l
was gratified that ! had discovered one
situation that was absolutely hopeless. It
was as if l had made a discovery of great
import in the realms of philosophical
speculation. ! experienced a hideoJIS
complacency in contemplating my utterly
hopeless environment.
But my complacCnCy was somewhat
dampened for moment by thoughts of
my horrible loneliness. Why had Hly
wife allowed my body to be SO quickly
disposed Of? How selfish, Suppose the
physicians had pronounced me dead, was
that q sufficient reason for putting me
away so soon? Why did she not wait I'M
til her own reason was convinced? Why
did she not watch for palpable and Unmis-
taxable evidences Of decay? No, my wife
did not love me.
And / remembered the young man who
sought to rival me in her affections "a
handsome, dark haired, reserved Young
man who had quietly accepted her answer.
and for three years waited patiently for
this opportunity to renew his suit. A
woman tires OF a lover, and wife may
well tire Of . husband My darling had
proved herself no exception. Not that
she would have abandoned me living
her wifely duty and her virtue would
have prevented that-but a husband dead
is a duty done, and the grave swallows
every Obligation And when the brief
season OF hypocritiel grief shall have
passed by the dark haired, handsome
Young man with the earnest, pleading
eyes, viii once more take his place by her
sldc-h;S arm VIII Cacircie her yielding
waist. lis lip, viii meet hers in the pas
si0nate kiss Of a love that glOws warm be-
meath nc ashes OF mine:
mus did jealousy feed like a harry
rpoo the tenGerest emotions of my heart
What q depth OF despair had reached, to
lie there dying. bereft Of hope, and suf-
fcriUC the Jorments of the damned, and
yet iiad an abiding place in my horror
haunted soul for such a grizzly guest as
jealousy. Ny head ached, and my throat
was strained rs dumb sorrow strains it.
/ gnaslcd my teeth in impotcnt rage, and
my fingers clinched thar cloth buttor-I
tore = from its fastening as ! would have
torn her heart out at that moment. and I
held it tight clasped in my hand, half fear
in- that ! would lose it, and wondering in
. vague sort of way why ! wished to
keep It.
Tearst Oh, the solace Of those tears al
that moment Of supreme agony / wept
like q woman. and / was filled with pity
of mySelt-such pity as the soul of man
has never felt. But a. the same time |
myself Why had / not in
sisted upon an autopsy IN the event Of my
tc-tEs ~ ~ -tt hot peI>lSteu III MY
expressed desire that / should be cremated?
Death would probably have resulted in
either case. hut certainly death in any
shape was preferable to this death. But,
aside from GII'hiS, The delay and prepara-
ton Tor Tie dissect2g room or the furnace
voUd have afforded some slight chance
Of ultimate escape. Had not revived, as
ii was would | not have manifested some
Si-r Of returning consciousness under the
other circuuStances-evep at the point CO
the surgeons kGite-eveu at the door Of
the glowing furnaces
Tl.us GO We cheat ourselves with hopes
& J, rs, q